Snow us the money! David Goldstein, Washington correspondent for McClatchy newspapers, reports that three senators are standing up for the poor, neglected industrial agriculture industry against the wicked Know Your Farmer Know Your Food program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. From the story: Sens....

Pollan nation: In what is ostensibly a five-book review for the June 10 New York Review of Books, journalist Michael Pollan has an epic essay charting the emergence and character of the food movement. Or, as he puts it, “‘movements,’ since it is unified as yet by little more than the...

Marc my words: Ethicurean co-editor Marc Rumminger talks about which cookbook authors and local-food purveyors he admires for an interview on Berkeley Bites. His personal blog, Mental Masala, was recently named a blog with bite and featured on food rockstar Mark Bittman’s recently launched group site. Yay...

It’s a sad and telling sign of the SOLE food movement’s popularity, when people use the movement’s principles to market their beef and hide the bullshit behind the counter. As Matthew Richter writes in “Mystery Meat” for Seattle’s The Stranger, J’Amy Owens and...

Although it has a relatively low population density, California’s San Joaquin Valley has some of the worst air pollution in the nation, especially when it comes to ozone (O3), a gas that can cause respiratory and cardiac problems. To counteract the air pollution, California and San Joaquin Valley...

In an adaptation of his keynote address at the Small Farms Conference, Russ Parsons praises the farmers market — an institution that has had a “revolutionary effect” — but also calls it “one of the most inefficient business plans ever devised.” He notes some of the flaws: they are...

You’ve probably heard about service programs that put volunteer teaching assistants in classrooms of underprivileged schools or put new college graduated into troubled schools. A new program called Food Corps puts a twist in that old formula, sending volunteers into school kitchens and purchasing...

In a cover article for Ode Magazine, Larry Gallagher describes the planet’s soil problem — poor land-use practices destroy soil faster than nature can create it — and examines how farmers and others are trying to solve the problem. He starts with a visit to Ecology Action in California’s...

Giving bees the brush-off: California almonds, a multi-billion dollar crop, are almost completely dependent on honey bees for pollination. During the short pollination season, a significant fraction of the U.S. honeybee colonies are in the almond orchards — in 2004, for example, sixty percent of the 2.5...

Getting hooked on aquaponics: Aquaponics — the combination of hydroponics and aquaculture — can be a great way to grow food in a small space, with little water and at low cost. In the S.F. Bay Area, a few organizations are building and selling systems. The Oakland-based company Kijiji Grows (kijiji is...

In a short research paper, two staff members from the Pacific Institute examine how energy is used in the production and distribution of bottled water. Bottle production and transportation are by far the largest energy users, with pre-bottling water processing (filtration and disinfection), filling and...

Friend of the Ethicurean Sam Fromartz looks at a new wave of small slaughterhouses that are appearing in Virginia. He focuses on True & Essential Meats of Harrisonburg, a new partnership of former landscape architect Joe Cloud, his mother, and Joel Salatin (of Polyface Inc., who was profiled in...